HICKS

I agree. I ordered the new updated one too, and it lifts up just fine, and only had to be notched around the windsheild lugs.

Jerry Feather

And not only that, but the factory one is much cheaper than mine is going to be, in more ways than one.

Jerry Feather

I have the center hump form formed and the aft/windshield edge form made also. I have some material cut and milled for the ribs, and I have the cutout for the battery made. This is all for the 924 form, and as it turns out will also fit the early 944s, up through 85, unless there was a mid-year change to the later 944 version. So, I am about 65% complete on the early form.

I am also about 20 percent on the later 944 form. I am starting with the basic measurements from the 924 version and doing a lot of guestimating and extrapolating from the 944 Cowl Cover Eric K. sent me a year ago, but I think I will be able to successfully complete the version for the 944. Then I will have to wonder if it will also fit the 968, since guys are saying that they can get the 968 version to fit the 944 with some trimming.

One interesting thing I have found that I'll bet none of you knew, and that is that the WS Wipers in the later 944 and 968 are not in the same place as with the 924 and early 944, at least in respect to the center one.

Jerry Feather

Something else I have learned by searching online for engine bay photos is that in some of the very early 924s the battery is oriented crossways to the axis of the car rather than long ways with it. That is going to eliminate those cars from this 924 and early 944 version of cover that I am designing. I would essentially have to make a complete separate form to accommodate the battery the other way. I doubt that there is much interest in those anyway.

I can't remember just how Eric K. made contact with me a year ago or so about starting this project, and then he sent me his broken 944 Cowl Cover to use in the development. I am using it now and think that maybe with my 924 and his Cover I will be able to make a suitable late 944 Cover. However, now I can't seem to find any contact information for him. Does anyone know who he is? I don't think he posts here, but he must have found me on Rennlist since that is where all of the information is about my projects. Are you out there, Eric?

Jerry Feather

I have been making progress on the 944 Cowl Cover, mainly from pictures of an engine compartment shown in an eBay ad and from the 944 Cover Eric K sent me including some markings on the inside of it from the fan assembly. I am hoping to refine the design to fit a little more closely and to look more professional as befits a Porsche.

I am also changing the design so that the water off the hood and off the WS will flow across the Cowl Cover and drain in the front, as with the Cowl Covers for the 928, rather than mostly in the back as it looks like the 944 original design provides for.

Then, all of a sudden there appears on eBay a 944 fan assembly, the one I am trying to design around/for. I bought it and hope to have it shortly so I can refine my measurements and calculations. That is going to be a very big help.

Jerry Feather

It looks like I am going to have to start over with this project, at least in a sense. I have now found another 924 that I am buying--an 80 with the m471 option, I think. It is a one-owner car and has only about 31k original miles. With it I am going to be inspired to broaden the project out a bit so I can include the early 924 in the program. Since I am going that direction I may just as well go the other and include the 968 cars since their cowl cover is slightly different from the late 944, at least, so far as I can tell, in respect to the location of the WS wiper location(s).

Now, what I need to determine, some way, is a few other variables, such as when the battery location was changed to mounting crossways to the axis of the car to longways with it, and such as when the hood changed from the hand lift and hold up with a rod mounted under it to being lifted and/or held up with gas struts. That later determination will make a difference in just how wide I can make the new Cowl Cover for the earliest of these cars, and the former will determine which ones will need a different battery cover provision, and/or some combination of these. I hope that is going to limit the forms to only 4; so the additional two is kind of like starting over.

Any input about this would be appreciated. For example it would be helpful for anyone to simply say what year and model of the car they have, which way the battery sits, and how the hood is held up. A picture of the cowl area would also be very helpful, especially of the 968 so I can try to determine exactly where the WS wipers are located.

Jerry Feather

I found a picture on line somewhere of what appears to be a RHD 924 or early 944. The WSWs are in the same place as a LHD cars, but the battery is on the opposite side, nested together with the WSW mechanism. Someone suggested above that the battery on all the RHD cars is "in the back." I wonder what the battery is supposed to be in the back of.

HICKS

The battery is in the rear hatch area on RHD cars.

Why are you making this again?

psychoideas

The battery is in the back of, "the car."
On the left side under the carpet, Behind the wheel well.

Up front on the left side is the fuse box. On the right side there is nothing. But when I say 'nothing', it means there is no cavity protruding down into, what is, the drivers side in this case. And they can't have the cavity because I guess it would interfere with the brake mechanism. On RHD cars the brake pedal operates on a long shaft behind the dash to work on the master cylinder that is still mounted in the left hand side of the engine bay. The only thing we get on the right side of the engine bay is the clutch res.

Tiger03447

Dear Jerry: My early 944 is prolly about like your 924. The heater is different than on the later cars, but I use the 2 hood lifts like on the later 944. No hood prop. The hood hinges appear to have a handhold or a lock built into them. You are right about the battery, as it does go crosswise in it's compartment. There are no hoses or wiring covers in the engine bay..They just go wherever they need to. I do know that the WW arms are totally different, but not sure about the spacing. Your cover would be great to help keep debris out from under the windshield and it's associated areas. Hope that this helps some...Tiger 03447

Jerry Feather

Thanks guys for the positive input. I guess I am just curious about the battery in the RHD cars, more than anything, since I doubt that this project will justify much, if any, separate effort at RHD forms.

Tiger, thanks for your information. By now I think it is pretty certain that the 944 "business" in the cowl area changed at 85.5 model change. Oddly, that did not carry through to the 924S cars of 87 and 88, which are still the same as before 85.5.

At this point I have the late 924/early 944 form nearly complete and that will include the 924 starting when the battery went longways with the car and the hood got struts, I am still having to guess that that is about 82 or 83, maybe with the introduction of the 944??? I guess that means that that form will be useful only for the early 944 up to just before 85.5 and for the 924S cars.

It may be that the 924 through its production end in 82(?) all had the hood prop and the battery crossways to the long axis of the car. In that case the third form I have just barely started will be for those cars. I just retrieved the 80 that I bought locally and will use it as a fitting dummy for that form. I think that form will cover the entire cowl area out to the fenders, at least forward of the hood hinges. I am thinking it will be in two basic pieces with one on the battery side being removable for access to the battery, rather that a separate battery cover as with the other two forms. It is going to look pretty plain Jane, but will then have to have one or two openings for intake air. That, and the fins will "busy" it up some so it will look right.

The later 944 form is also nearing completion. It is taking a vast amount of detail effort and each day that I add some detail I have to wait overnight for the epoxy to set. Yesterday was the fence around the two air intake openings. I am making this form in four basic pieces that will eventually be glued and screwed together into one form for some final addition of detail. This form will also have provision for two opposite and symmetrical covers, one for the battery and one for the fuse cover. That is so that the cover will look right and fill most of the cowl area even though the fuses do not need another cover. The central hump segment for over the dual cage fan is not going to look almost anything like the original, but I am going to like it a lot more.

There is one area of the 968 cowl configuration that is particularly different from the late 944, and that is right at the driver's side and front corner of the dual cage fan. Is there something additional there that requires the latest version of the factory cover to be raised there more than the earlier version of this cover??? If so this form is not going to work for the 968 and I don't think I am going to the additional effort to make a separate 968 form. I may be able to devise an additional piece to add to the late 944 form to make it work for the 968, but we will have to see. I am hoping that the 944 form will simply work for the 968 as I am making it.

Thanks again for the input.

Jerry Feather

About the battery placement, I guess the question is which of this series of front engine four cylinder Porsche cars has the battery in the cowl area on the left side with the WSW mechanism?

Spidey944

Maybe you should just make the 968 version since they only require a "trim" to fit the late 944's?

Jerry Feather

Hi Doug. I don't think I have yet even seen a picture of the cowl area of a 968 without the cowl cover. The cowl cover looks very much like the one for the 944, but I don't know why there are some minor differences. I think I would be too much in the dark to try to make a 968 cover; and besides that there are relative few 968s around to make the potential market of smaller interest.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Jerry Feather

The "trim" required for the 968 Cowl Cover to fit the late 944 is apparently because it appears to me that the 968 does not have what has been called above, "windshield lugs." What I can do about that difference is make the late 944 form adjustable so that the places for the lugs can be either formed or not formed.

The other two differences involve a slightly farther forward hump for what is the vacuum actuator on the driver's side of the dual cage fan, and an odd straight rib kind of thing formed across the front in the fan area. I don't have any idea what these differences are for, or if they are even needed. I suspect the long rib is not needed, but I don't know about the other. If it is not needed either then the late 944 cowl cover will probably work for the 968 with it being formed without the cutouts for the lugs.